THE RUSSO-CHINA WAR.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 177, 27 July 1880, Page 4

THE RUSSO-CHINA WAR.

[Melbourne « Telegraph."]

War between Russia end Chirm has been begun. That the former Power will aim at blockading the Chinese trading ports, there can be no doubt, so that a serious derangement of the commerce with that country is oil but inevitable ; and then who can foretell what complications may not arise from the f»Bt-gatherinfr conflict to the northward ? And yet would it be fair to BBBume that not one Australian in a hundred, not one Englishman in ten thousand, possesses the slightest knowledge of, or feels the smallest interest iv, the circumstances that have led up by a process of inexorable practical logic to the quarrel between the two vast empires of Russia and Chins, whose issues are so important and so disquieting to all British people. The nations of Christendom are gradually coming to the knowledge of the fact that, within the last five-aod-twenty years op so, there has been an astonishing revival of Mohammedanism all over Asia. Zealous missionaries went forth in troops from the central stations of Islam, and travelled eastward into every country in Asia, and southward into Africa, preaching the, gospel of the Prophet with a fiery earnestness. Their success was so great , that we find the London " Spectator " specking of the religions oonquest of all Africa, from the Mediteranean to the Zambesi, Abyssinia excepted, as a highly probable event, whilst in India it is already making very rapid progress. Stimulated by tHis outburst of revived fervor for the faith, the Mohammedan subjects of the Chinese Emperor >ose in revolt, expelled the Chinese from several of the western provincep, erected two independent States under Islamite Sullans, and bade defiance to the authorities at Pekin. For some years the new kingdoms of Keshgar and Talifoo were peaceful and prosperous, end were recognised as independent sovereignties by the European powers. There was a prevalent belief that the resources of the Chinese had been too much wasted in suppressing the Tsipiog rebellion to allow of their undertaking the re-conquest of the revolted'provinces. But this, as the sequel showed, was a very grave mistake. A Chinese army marched westward from Pekin in 1876, and before the close of the following year the gigantic enterprise in which it was engaged was completed. The revolted provinces wer.e subdued; The two Mohammedan kingdoms were overthrown. The banner of the Yellow Dragon floated "once more over every fort and citadel in the whole vast region. The Chinese generals exhibited a degree of valor, psreeverance, and skill in strategy that would have done credit

to a Wellington or a Napoleon. They left do part of their work unaccomplished ; and when it was quite finished they found themselves face to face with the Russian. One province, named Koldjo, bad been annexed by the ever-watchful Muscovite during the progress of the Mabammedan rebellion in the "West. Demand was made for its restoration to its rightful owners. Then all the resources of the Muecovito diplomacy were brought into pl»y, and a perfect net work of negotiations^ between the two Powers was woven by cunning bandß. At length the terms of a treaty were agreed upon, and Buseia consented to give back Kuldja, but the authorities at Pekin speedily discovered that they bad been duped and deceived iv the transaction. The Muscovite was "too many " for the Mongolian I Then ensued remonstrances and more negotiations, fresh diplomacy, and renewed trickery. Driven to extremity by the wiles and artifices of their powerful neighbor and secret enemy, the Chinese rulers repudiated the treaty, recalled their ambassador, arraigned him for incapacity or treachery or both; and sentenced him to decapitation. The sequel to all the these events, as we now learn, is the marching of the Rub:, sian forceß in Central Ania upon the re-corjquered province of Kaßhgar, and the despatch of an armed fleet from jthe Baltic to the Pacific. Such, briefly stated, are the circumstances that have led up to the quarrel; its course will* doubtless, be watched by the British Government and by the Australian people with the interest which spriogs from a conviction of being intimately concerned in the issue.